1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vulcanizing machine of a tire vulcanizing system for vulcanizing a tire, supplying an unvulcanized tire, vulcanizing a tire and discharging a vulcanized tire.
2. Description of Related Art
Normally, a tire-vulcanizing machine (press) has two tire molds on the right and left sides thereof so as to increase productivity, and employs a simultaneous mold press type vulcanizing process in which two tires are simultaneously vulcanized with the two tire molds. In the tire vulcanizing machine of the simultaneous mold press type like this, a press mechanism is mounted on a press body, and the right and left tire molds are adapted to be opened or closed at the same time.
However, in the conventional tire vulcanizing machine described above, since the right and left tire molds cannot be opened or closed individually, while no problem occurs when tires which are of the same kind and have the same vulcanizing time are produced, if the tires are of different kind and have vulcanizing times from each other, it is required to adjust an opening or closing operation of the molds for each tire. Therefore, it is difficult to produce the tires efficiently with the conventional tire vulcanizing machine, the conventional tire vulcanizing machine is not suitable for producing a wide variety of tires and for minimizing the stock of products as the member of types of tires to be produced is increasing in recent years.
On the other hand, it is possible to provide the conventional tire vulcanizing machine with an independent opening/closing unit for opening or closing the right and left molds independently, but this increases equipment costs and is economically disadvantageous.
The present invention has been achieved in view of the above-mentioned problems associated with the conventional tire vulcanizing machine described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a tire vulcanizing machine which can produce a wide variety of tires and can produce the tire efficiently by using a mold opening/closing device of simultaneous mold press type.
In order to solve the problems of conventional machines, a tire vulcanizing machine in accordance with the present invention has a base frame, a guide column erected on the base frame, an upper movable beam guided by the column so as to move up and down, and at least two connection/disconnection units for connecting or disconnecting the upper movable beam to or from tire mold assemblies, wherein the tire mold assemblies disposed on opposite sides of the column are opened or closed simultaneously or individually.
As described above, the tire vulcanizing machine in accordance with the present invention has the base frame, the guide column erected on the base frame, the upper movable beam guided by the column so as to move up and down, and the two connection/disconnection units for connecting or disconnecting the upper movable beam to or from the tire mold assemblies. Therefore, it is possible to provide the tire-vulcanizing machine which does not reduce its availability even if the frequency of changing molds increases.
Further, the tire-vulcanizing machine in accordance with the present invention has the base frame, the guide column erected on the base frame, the two upper movable beam guided by the column so as to move up and down, and the two connection/disconnection units for connecting or disconnecting the upper movable beam to or from the tire mold assemblies, wherein the tire mold assemblies disposed on opposite sides of the column are opened or closed simultaneously or individually and each of the tire mold assemblies can be opened or closed individually by using a mold opening/closing unit of simultaneous mold press type. That is, the tire vulcanizing machine in accordance with the present invention can produce tires using a time period for vulcanization suitable for each mold and thus can respond to the production of a wide variety of tires, and further can produce tires more efficiently. Further, since the tire-vulcanizing machine in accordance with the present invention is provided with a press mechanism in the mold assembly itself, even though the right and left molds are independently operated, it is possible to eliminate the need for providing the machine with an independent opening/closing unit for opening or closing the right and left molds independently. This can reduce the facilities costs.